There. I've done it. I just wrote a 50,000 word novel in one month, as I set out to do. I just typed out the 50,078th word, and made it to the finish line in the nick of time.
I wrote last month that the novel was going to suck. Now, I really don't know anymore. It is so hard to judge a work that you've been working on for hours on nearly every day: you become blind to its flaws. But the story may even not suck as badly as I thought it would.
Although the story is finished, the novel is not done yet. The scenes are written out of order and do not connect logically to each other. There is exactly one scene per chapter, and the chapter heading gives a perfect spoiler of what happens in that scene. Inconsistencies crept in while I changed my mind about how things should work. Things that should have been said only once are said twice, thrice, while things that need to be mentioned remain unwritten. As I wrote in English, which is not my native language, the vocabulary I used is probably limited. And I may even have made an occasional typo. Much work remains.
I hope to get this all fixed up during December. Then, if and only if I'm satisfied, I will print out copies for some friends. Whatever I do with the story afterwards much depends on their reaction. If it's total rubbish I might put it online for free; if it's brilliant I might try to get it published. The truth is probably in between, so neither might happen. We'll see.
NaNo taught me a lot of lessons. I might write more about all that later. I might also write up the “making of” story for posterity and future WriMos. But all that will have to wait. Right now, my arms are starting to complain of RSI again, and I have a much neglected social life to attend to.
But I did it!
